TEAM HERALD
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
PANJIM: Five out of the seven mining lease holders who were initially sent renewal notices have deposited Rs 129 crore in the bank, with one lease holder paying stamp duty.
The State is hoping to mop up approximately Rs 252 crore, revenue in the form of stamp duty, from total 15 mining leases and a total of Rs 800 crore if all leases are renewed.
While Rajaram Bandekar has already paid a stamp duty of Rs 14 crore for renewal of its mine at Sirgao on Monday, four more mine owners deposited stamp duty for renewal of their mining leases on Tuesday.
Stamp paper franking procedures have not been completed for four. The four companies include Cosme Costa (Rs 60 crore), Littoferrao (Rs 6 crore), G Parulekar (Rs 20) and V D Chowgule (Rs 29 crore).
The last date for renewal of leases for these companies is February 28, while those companies that were sent notices by the state government later, the last date is March 7.
The leases which have been sent notices are situated outside forest areas. All the leases were issued notices for renewal of their lease for a period of 20 years earlier this month.
On February 13, mines department had issued noticed to seven firms asking to pay the stamp duty on or before February 28. Later, another seven were issued notices asking to pay the stamp duty on or before March 7.
As per the Indian Stamp (Goa amendment) Act 2012, notified in December 2012, it is mandatory for the mine owners to pay 15 per cent of the amount of royalty on the mining extract for next 20 years while renewing their lease.
According to sources, delay was due to procedural and technical reasons as the revenue department had initially given a ceiling of Rs 50 lakh for stamp paper franking. But banks competent to do this procedure had only taken a limit of Rs 10 lakh. But later, the limit was raised to Rs 1 crore by the revenue department and banks such as Yes Bank and Axis bank had raised their limits to Rs 99,999 lakhs allowing the renewal process to move forward.
